With just one win from their last nine matches overall in the French top flight, Sunday’s hosts, Marseille, look to have their work cut out ahead of this upcoming clash against high-flying Lyon despite holding home advantage at their Orange Velodrome.
Marseille’s solitary highlight in what has been an otherwise disappointing sequence of results in Ligue 1 came in the shape of a 3-2 home win against Nice, but the absence of victories has resulted in Marseille dropping down to 7th place in the Ligue 1 standings and two points adrift of 5th placed Lens.
Nos gardiens ont eu droit à une séance physique et ludique cet après-midi ⚾👐 pic.twitter.com/iDsiAwSuQC— Olympique Lyonnais (@OL) February 25, 2021
Nos gardiens ont eu droit à une séance physique et ludique cet après-midi ⚾👐 pic.twitter.com/iDsiAwSuQC
Four defeats against Nimes, Lens, Monaco and PSG have threatened to undo Marseille’s impressive work earlier in the season which saw the hosts pick up eight wins from their opening 12 matches of the campaign.
Even worse, three of Marseille’s four recent defeats have been inflicted upon them at their Orange Velodrome which has been anything but a fortress in recent weeks, while their recent record against Lyon is a poor one, having managed just one win from the last seven meetings.
Marseille manager, Nasser Larguet, is set to be without Japanese defender, Sakai, after he was sent off against Nantes last weekend.
Lyon moved within three points of Ligue 1 leaders, Lille, thanks to last weekend’s 3-2 win away from home at Brest and the visitors will be looking to make it back-to-back away wins on Sunday when they make their way to Marseille.
Lyon have done their chances of a possible challenge for a domestic top flight title no harm at all in recent weeks as they’ve picked up five wins out of their last six matches overall in Ligue 1 with victories gained over Saint-Etienne, Bordeaux, Dijon, Strasbourg and the aforementioned Brest.
The visitors have suffered just two defeats out of their last 23 matches overall which incidentally were both inflicted upon Lyon on home turf at their Groupama Stadium while results on the road continue to impress.
Lyon are unbeaten in their last 11 matches on their travels, winning eight of these and they’ve failed to score just once on the road all season, so they’ll be confident that they can get a result over a floundering Marseille outfit on Sunday.
Seven wins from their last eight away from home suggest Lyon will be too strong for Marseille here.